Question

Glucose can cross the cell membrane only using a carrier but in a passive or active way. What is the two significant difference between facilitated diffusion using Glut channel and the cotransport of glucose using Na+ to do it?

Answer 1

Glucose transport :

GLUTs are integral membrane proteins that contain 12 membrane-spanning helices with both the amino and carboxyl termini exposed on the cytoplasmic side of the plasma membrane. GLUT proteins transport glucose and related hexoses according to a model of alternate conformation,which predicts that the transporter exposes a single substrate binding site toward either the outside or the inside of the cell. Binding of glucose to one site provokes a conformational change associated with transport, and releases glucose to the other side of the membrane. The inner and outer glucose-binding sites are, it seems, located in transmembrane segments 9, 10, 11; also, the DLS motif located in the seventh transmembrane segment could be involved in the selection and affinity of transported substrate.

Sodium-dependent glucose cotransporters (or sodium-glucose linked transporter, SGLT) are a family of glucose transporter found in the intestinal mucosa (enterocytes) of the small intestine (SGLT1) and the proximal tubule of the nephron (SGLT2 in PCT and SGLT1 in PST). They contribute to renal glucose reabsorption. In the kidneys, 100% of the filtered glucose in the glomerulus has to be reabsorbed along the nephron (98% in PCT, via SGLT2). If the plasma glucose concentration is too high (hyperglycemia), glucose is excreted in urine (glucosuria) because SGLT are saturated with the filtered glucose. Glucose is never secreted by a healthy nephron

The SGLT proteins use the energy from this downhill sodium ion gradient created by the ATPase pump to transport glucose across the apical membrane, against an uphill glucose gradient. These co-transporters are an example of secondary active transport. Members of the GLUT family of glucose uniporters then transport the glucose across the basolateral membrane, and into the peritubular capillaries. Because sodium and glucose are moved in the same direction across the membrane, SGLT1 and SGLT2 are known as symporters